This piece is made of hand cut and torn paper adhered to a cradled masonite panel with matte medium. Any limitations I had previously imposed on myself for finding imagery evaporated with this piece. From the various images of lettuces, shrubs, and trees I gathered from various sources to create the forest, to the large chest of drawers that covers the dinosaur's chest; from the human ear that makes his nostril to the different grains of wicker and burlap that create parts of his skin; and from the upside-down images of painted ladies' faces on his mane to the blackberries on his side, the possibilities for fooling the human eye into believing these disparate subjects make up this prehistoric predator felt incredibly liberating. The subject itself brings up reminiscences around playing out imaginative stories with unrelated toys as a kid... making Barbie go for a ride with Winnie the Pooh, having Lego people live in my Lincoln Log house, or in this case, enabling a hungry dinosaur to attack a family of robots. How ridiculous! Even if dinosaurs and robots could exist in the same time, metal doesn't substitute well for flesh... says the grown-up mind. The sides are finished with randomly cut and collaged graphics of very simplified wood grain and the work comes ready to hang.

As a kid, Diane Flick often empathized with inanimate objects; she worried a Kleenex box on her headboard felt unloved because she never held it as she did her stuffed animals. Consequently, she would sometimes add it to her plush family for snuggling. Looking through the lenses of playfulness, emotional warmth, and scenes from a dramatic childlike imagination, the ‘bots series seeks to explore the sentience of non-sentient beings. Fun fact: Diane hasn’t owned a TV in 15 years, but she still loves watching Golden Girls DVD’s with her sister.